Message to the Congress Transmitting the First Annual Report of the National Science Foundation.

To the Congress of the United States:

I transmit herewith the first annual report of the National Science Foundation.

No thinking citizen can fail to recognize the swift rise of science in the last decade to a point where it exerts an enormous influence in the structure of world power and peace. No one can successfully dispute the importance of maintaining and increasing in this country the vitality of the basic research upon which all technological development-and therefore our economic progress and national security--is dependent. The legislation creating the National Science Foundation arose out of the experience in the last war that only by continued support of basic research can this nation maintain its leadership. It resulted from a bipartisan recognition of these facts, and was almost unanimously supported throughout the Nation.

The Foundation is much more than a new executive agency added to those already in existence with a research mission. It was conceived as a much-needed keystone in the structure of the national research program. Its principal task is to appraise the rapid growth of research activity, both public and private, and to recommend the broad goals toward which this massive effort should be channeled. In addition, the Foundation will support those areas of basic research and scientific training where the needs are most acute and will ultimately assume major responsibility for the Federal Government's support of basic research through grant or contract. As long as the Federal Government continues to be the largest factor in the national research effort, it must frankly face the responsibility to insure that this effort is conceived and executed soundly and effectively.

The results to be obtained from the operation of the Foundation far outweigh its cost. The Foundation's annual budget represents no more than a small fraction of the annual Federal outlays for research and development. The funds involved represent a long-term investment in the national security no less than the funds presently being invested in the expansion of productive capacity to carry us through a long period of partial mobilization.

HARRY S. TRUMAN